A major problem in identifying cases of anorexia nervosa in the non-clinical population has been the lack of a well-validated, reliable instrument to measure the symptoms of the disorder. We began this area of our investigations by constructing and validating a 40 item test, the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT). Following construction of the EAT, we administered this test to 5 groups of individuals (N equals 423). These included ballet students (N equals 183), fashion students (N equals 56), and control groups of university students (N equals 81) and music students (N equals 35) as well as patients with anorexia nervosa (N equals 68). This study was conducted in order to determine if sociocultural pressures to be thin, as exemplified by women who by career choice must focus increased attention on body size, would result in an increase in anorexia nervosa. We found anorexia nervosa to be more common in dance and modelling students than in other women of a similar age and social class. The prevalence of 7% in these groups using rigorous diagnostic criteria is higher than in a preliminary report (Garner and Garfinkel, 1978) and supports the hypothesis that individuals who must focus increased attention to a slim body are at risk for anorexia nervosa. It may also be that girls who are attracted to dance in the first place (because of a drive for activity, for example) are those predisposed to anorexia nervosa. Alternatively dance's preoccupation with the body, self-control and perfection may be important factors needed to bring out the disorder, rather than just slimness demands. This is supported by the finding that within the dance sample there was a higher risk for anorexia nervosa in those programmes in which there was greater pressure to succeed as a professional. In these groups, all cases of anorexia nervosa developed after students began to study dance. The high incidence of anorexia nervosa in the more competitive schools documents the merit of future attempts to measure more directy the role of perceived performance expectation in individual students to determine its relationship to the development of the disorder. There has, to date, been no estimate of the prevalence of anorexia nervosa in North America and the European studies of this are only those of Crisp and Nylander. We are in the midst of such a study estimating the prevalence of t (Text Truncated - Exceeds Capacity)